


Crow

by ImaKaraTabiHe



Series: Robin or Crow? [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), Batman: Son of Batman
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bat Family, Batcave, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Family Issues, Human Experimentation, Hurt Damian, Negligence, Running Away, Sad, Self-Discovery, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-06-03 00:00:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 18,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6588631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImaKaraTabiHe/pseuds/ImaKaraTabiHe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A follow-up to "Lone Bat".</p>
<p>Damian's run away from his "family" and he's on the road trying to find a place to fit in.  He may have given up being Robin, but he's not giving up his task, so instead of being Robin, he adapts a new identity, just for him.  Damian Wayne - now Damian Age, is Crow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Life

Damian's raiding an old Cadmus storage facility that he found, and that Batman doesn't have on his list (though he'll add it privately from a secure place later), sifting through the Cadmus stores. They have a bike. A _bike_. Like the one Grayson.. no, Nightwing uses. It's high tech and Damian's glad he'd erased their own data on the facility or he's sure it wouldn't be there. It's a sleek black that is perfect for his new self. The modifications retract upon command so that it looks like any other motorcycle.

Another plus is that it has a place for storage. In it, Damian places a first aid kit that resembles Pennyworth's with a variety of surgical thread, needles, pain medicine… anything a vigilante could need. He's sure that is not the original intent of its creation, but it'll do for his purposes.

He can hear a fog horn in the distance out on the bay. He wonders if this is the last time he'll be in Gotham, but shaking his head, he decides that it's fine. He's changing himself. He's going to be whoever he wants. No, whoever Damian W. Age wants to be.

Damian Age is the son of Wayne and Natalie Age, a dual national with a foreign country. His mother's side of the family are wealthy traders in Asia who've let him go to America to see his father's country and experience “growth”. He's got stock in Wayne Enterprises and Queen's Consolidated that keep him well off. Damian Age won't be hurt for money so long as the two companies don't spontaneously combust, but that's highly unlikely.

With everything he needed, Damian hopped on the bike and gave one last look to the city. It had been perfect for one such as him. Former assassin. Heir to the League of Assassins. Son of Batman. But it hadn't been the place for Damian. He vaguely wondered if he'd ever find a place for Damian as he skidded out of the compound heading out of Gotham.

Damian would never be able to give up the life he'd made as a crime fighter. That just wasn't him and it simply wouldn't do. Not anymore. Not after he'd tasted the life that offered a “healthier substitute” for his previous life with Ra's al Ghul. Damned if there wasn't a part of him that couldn't bare to abandon the last connection he had with his family (former).

With the previous insights in mind, he'd decided that he didn't have to give it up. In fact, he refused. Just because he no longer wore the Robin costume and fought crime alongside his father wasn't going to make him stop. It was the reason he'd grabbed the domino mask and assassin uniform. It was the reason he'd collected and modified birdarangs to look like his new alter-ego, Crow.

He'd even stuck with the whole bird theme.

Damian had chosen a crow for obvious reasons. Crows were intelligent, strong, regal beings who took what they needed with effortless grace. They were quick to fade into the darkness of night. They were also proud (although he's sure Drake would say 'moody').

Days passed as he traveled the country, finding his way through cities and into the darkest places where Crow would appear to rescue some poor victim of crime. He didn't use his katana, it was too telling. Sure the mod-birdarangs were in their own ways revealing, but it was something that wouldn't be traced back to him by villains.

He'd found himself in Jump City once, home of the Teen Titans, Drake's team. There always seemed to be unusually juvenile crimes in Jump City, like criminals with spiders for heads – he had to admit that part unnerved him. He watched them take down a few crimes, sticking to the shadows. Drake.. Red Robin was happy there. That much was obvious. It occurred to Damian that the Titans weren't just his friends, but also a surrogate family.

It puzzled him to watch them interact with such openness, how they trusted one another so effortlessly. Red Robin had never shown that kind of expression with him. Drake had never smiled that way at Damian. 'I guess that's what being the son of an assassin of the League of Shadows will do to a person's credibility,' he remarked to himself, pushing down bitter feelings of anguish.

Honestly, he didn't mind the atmosphere of Jump City. It was light-hearted in a way that made him uncomfortable. Gotham was darker, dirtier, and the people of the city carried themselves like there was a dark cloud that hung over them. It was a city that Damian was well acquainted with and this city was totally abnormal to him and in a way that's what made it both annoyingly infuriating and fascinating to him.

Damian had spent several days there when there was an incident. He's not going to say that the Titans screwed up, but someone definitely screwed up. They walked right into a trap. Damian was torn in that moment between yelling at them and taking action to save them. In the end, there had been a gun pointed at Red Robin, hidden in a blind-spot that it seemed only Damian was privy to, so he'd pulled out a mod and threw the crow shaped sharp disc and knocked the gun out of the man's hands.

The gun had fallen with a loud clatter that Cyborg and the others had noticed. Starfire promptly flew Red Robin up to the blind-spot and he'd disposed of the crook himself. It was too much to hope that Red Robin – that Drake wouldn't notice the mod but he did. His head had snapped about, looking for the source and Damian fled out of sight.

Not hours after that incident, Damian was back on the road again, heading out of Jump City. Interfering had been the only decision he could've made. Drake had his team, had his family, and they needed him. In doing so, he'd given them vital evidence about his location, so he'd sped away without a second look back.

He scolded himself as he gained distance from Jump City. 'Why couldn't I just have stayed out of it,' he chided himself. Secretly, he knew why. He might have left the Manor, left the family, but he still cared. He was still ' _weakly attached_ ' as his mother would say. Weakly attached though he might be, he couldn't bring himself to care.


	2. Archer's City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian aka Crow finds himself deep in archer territory, but where are the arrows?

Damian sighed, rubbing his temples as he stopped at a gas station just outside of Star City. Driving for hours was certainly exhausting. If he had to say anything about road trips on his own was that he hated not having his own personal jet. 'Note to self, buy personal jet,' he told himself.

The clerk at the gas station gave him an odd look when he bought a tank's worth of gas and a bag of snacks and water. He ignored it, knowing that his attitude was often what made him appear older, at least in atmosphere to those around him. His mental maturity was more than capable of fooling anyone who might be curious as to his real age.

Once in Star City, he checked into a sub-par hotel, making sure he got a room with easy access to the fire escape. He had to admit the hotels in Jump City were better. Star City was darker, kind of like Gotham. It made his stomach clench in an unfamiliar feeling that he believes would be similar to “homesickness”. The thought of being homesick for Gotham made him frown. He had no home. He shouldn't be homesick.

Damian slipped his things under his bed. 'Better safe than sorry.' He'd take the things he needed with him and leave the rest behind.

It was easy to slip out after donning his domino mask and assassin outfit, utility belt around his waist. Damian couldn't resist a smile as he dropped down the fire escape and onto his bike, comm system wired into the police scanners as he listened for trouble. It would've been better to listen in on the JL system, but that was more risky. Plus he had all the local crime news now.

The loud screech of his bike as he sped into the night made him cackle much like he heard Grayson used to. He loved the speed, the freedom, the power.

Star City was archer territory, but that didn't stop Crow from taking down two robbers and a mugger. He felt immensely pleased with the way he left them wrapped up on the doorsteps of two police establishments. He also secretly wondered whether or not the archers knew Crow was in town.

Two days. He had spent two days in Star City so far and not one arrow in sight. Where were they? What happened? Was there something he was missing?

Damian paced along the edge of a roof in the darker part of the city. He thought about hacking into the JL's comm system, but no, that would attract too much attention, besides it wasn't for certain that they were missing or that something major had happened. It wasn't world threatening, obviously, or else it would be all over the news.

Roy Harper – Arsenal (his clone – Red Arrow – who mainly stuck to Titan territory). Oliver Queen – Green Arrow. Sometimes Tigress showed up on a visit to the archers, but she tended to travel and last, he'd heard she was out of the country.

Finally on the fourth day, he finally sees an arrow, but by that time, he's already in too deep. There's a hostage situation at an art gala and Damian's made his way through the security, passed the police and into the museum. He's perched on an outcrop near the ceiling in a shadow as he watches gunmen pace the floor, civilians with their faces pressed into the cold tiles of the floor.

'Now what?' He knows that if he just free falls into the chaos someone will get hurt. Turning out the lights and kicking butt won't exactly work with civilians in the mix.

Damian's still thinking when four arrows zoom by, striking guns from four of the five gunman's hands. The fifth levels his weapon at a civilian, yelling for “Robin Hood” to stand down or he'll fire. That's when Crow drops in. A mod whips the weapon from the fifth's hands and Crow feels satisfied when his heel connects with the man's head in a round kick.

Glass shatters as Arsenal and Green Arrow fly through, landing on the ground and civilians are taking advantage of the chaos and fleeing. Their screeching is more than a little annoying, but after living with Drake and Grayson, Crow ignores it and advances on a second man, dodging his clumsy fists. It's easy enough to subdue him and by that time the archers have taken out the other three and are tying them up.

Crow ties the two he felled on his own up and drags them by their collars to the heap of failed robbers. It looks a little odd to see such a small vigilante dragging two men that look about twice his size, but after all the work he's done, it looks as if he could have his own super strength.

“Nice job….” Green Arrow trails off as he searches for a name.

“Crow,” Damian tells him.

Green Arrow nods and smiles at him like he's never smiled at Damian Wayne. It makes his stomach swoop in a sick realization that his family (former) weren't the only ones to view him as unnecessary. Anger bubbles up, but he forces it down. There's no use in getting angry. 'Even if it's not as Damian Wayne, at least Crow is 'good',' he tells himself.

Crow turns as Arsenal 'hm'. “So what are you? Some kid playing dress-up?”

Crow raises an eyebrow behind his domino mask. “Hardly.”

He's turning to leave as he hears Green Arrow call after him, so he turns back. Green Arrow's holding up one of his mods. He must've been more shaken up than he thought to even let it slip his mind that he'd thrown one. Those aren't exactly mass produced.

“This yours?” Crow stalks over to Green Arrow and snatches it from his hand. “Thanks,” he grinds out, not insincerely, just cautiously.

He doesn't have to be Kryptonian to see the way Arsenal's eyes narrow behind his mask. When he opens his mouth to question Crow is when he decides it's time to disappear.

“Lovely to meet you and all, but I have some business to take care of. Enjoy the rest of your night,” Crow says as he swings out with the help of his grappling hook through one of the broken windows.

'Well that was fun,' Crow says as he sits atop a roof overlooking the museum. Arsenal and Green Arrow are with the police, giving their account. Through the upgraded binoculars, he can read their lips and track their movements. His only response for Arsenal's skepticism and curiosity about his identity is to raise an eyebrow.

The case is wrapping up quite perfectly, until Arsenal and Green Arrow move to the side to talk “privately”. _“..Do you think it could be him? Dick's been looking everywhere for the brat.”_ Crow's eyes narrow.

Green Arrow shrugs and turns so Crow can't see his response, but he can guess from Arsenal's own words. _“Yeah, you're right. If anything the kid would've gone back to the League instead of sticking it out on his own.”_

Crow frowns, collecting himself and stuffing his gear back to where he usually keeps it and swings away from the museum, turning Arsenal's words over in his head. 'I'll _never_ go back to the League. Even if Batman himself tells me to return,' Damian swears to himself vehemently as he heads off into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I should really thank the one who asked for a continuation of Damian's break off from the Bat family. I might not of continued it without someone who actually wanted to read it (I'm not used to writing anyone from the Bat family).
> 
> Anywho, hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	3. Kreed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crow has another run in with the archers and later has an experience with a criminal called Kreed.

The next night, unlike the previously archer free nights, Crow has another run in with the two archers. It vexes him a bit and makes him suspicious, though he admits to himself that it may just be paranoia like his father possessed.

“Howdy,” Green Arrow calls as Arsenal ties up a pair of wanted criminals together. Crow looks up from tying a piece of clothe around his arm where one of them had gotten lucky and nicked the skin.

“Hi,” he replies slowly. As Green Arrow stops in front of him, he's mentally mapping escapes and charting probabilities.

“So.. you do realize you have the same kind of shtick that the Bat family has in Gotham, right?”

Crow shrugs. Finished tying the clothe, he lets his body fall into a loose form that he's been trained to react in an instant from. Should they make any threatening movements, he'll be slipping by them and disappearing into the night.

“Who cares about Gotham,” he sarcastically asks with an eye roll behind his domino mask.

“Awe, come on little bird,” Damian stiffens at the familiar nickname, but forces himself to relax, hoping it hasn't been noticed. “It's not every day a kid decides to become a vigilante.”

“Actually, they kind of do,” Arsenal interrupts. “Do you seriously not see kids playing Justice League?”

Green Arrow growls in annoyance at the implication that he's blind. Crow watches the interaction with a familiar sort of homesickness. It's the way he's traded barbs with _them_ before.

“Anyways, you're pretty young. What are you.. ten?” Crow's hand twitches towards the belt with his mods. “Not even close,” he tells them, acutely aware of Arsenal's undivided attention being on him.

“You sure, because you're pretty small there, short stuff,” Arsenal implies.

Crow's mouth twitches. “Surely my age doesn't matter. My skill is proof enough that I can hold my own regardless.”

“What about your family,” Green Arrow speaks up, lips down-turned in what appears to be a concerned frown. It makes Damian's brows beneath the mask furrow in confusion. He's not used to see anyone concerned about him. 'But to them I'm not Damian Wayne,' he reminds himself, humming in satisfaction at his own explanation.

“No family,” Crow replies without any negative emotions, because it's not a terrible thing. At least, he doesn't think it is. Sure he has some feelings about leaving the Wayne family behind, but he's been on his own, even then, so he's not sure how he should feel about not having any family.

Green Arrow exchanges a glance with Arsenal that Damian reads as a 'can you believe this' type look and he can tell neither of them quite believe it. Not the no family part, but the part where he's fine with that.

“I'm fine,” Crow assures them adamantly. “Just because you have family, doesn't mean I should.”

They frown at him and he just raises an eyebrow because he's not sure about this. His family is more of a family without him, at least that was his reasoning when he left. Why should he want a family if all he does is stick out like a sore thumb?

“Look, kid, everyone needs a family,” Arsenal says gruffly.

“Maybe they do,” Crow admits, “but there's no family I belong with.” It's said with such certainty that Arsenal and Green Arrow appear visibly startled and sad. They go to open their mouths and say more, but he cuts them off.

“Well, I should be on my way. Robbers to nap, muggers to kick,” he tells them as he turns and runs off into the night, slipping into the shadows and onto his bike. That was one conversation that he wasn't ready to have. It slipped out on its own.

He didn't realize how much Arsenal and Red Hood were similar until he talked to him more. It was a heart wrenching thought. He scoffed to himself. ' _Heart wrenching_. How melodramatic.' It should no longer matter to him. He had no connection to Red Hood. Maybe he never did.

Damian bit his lip as he zoomed through the city on his bike. He had no connection to any of them and even if he did, it would only be superficial. He didn't hate any of them though. They were a family, without him.

Sirens roared in the distance and Crow made a hard right, heading straight to the source. He arrived at the source with a screech as he hit the breaks.

His breath caught in his throat when he saw the parameter and SWAT. That never meant anything good. “-bomb-” was all he heard before he was moving, climbing up a nearby building and flipping on his comm to monitor the police radio and find out more information.

“- second floor, room 214 – bomb -”

Crow frowned in concentration. Could you leave it up to SWAT and the police?

“- secondary trigger – rigged – X on a card -”

That was a negatory. He flew through the air on his grapple and swung into the room, crashing through glass.

When the SWAT members looked at him, he yelled. “GET OUT! It's a trap!”

They gave him strange looks before he growled, “NOW!” If he was channeling Batman's persona he didn't care. As long as it worked right now. And it did. SWAT members began filing out of the room.

Crow waited until they were all gone to look at the bomb. It was well designed. His eyes slid over to the card with an 'x' on it. It made his flesh crawl. He knew that signature.

His mind supplied the information, instantly recalling the files he'd seen in Batman's computer database.

'Kreed, Cadmus member that went silent after committing a series of bombings that Cadmus had attempted to pin on a hero. Recommended defusing of the bomb – chemically freezing it until it can be set off a safe distance away.'

Chemically? Crow could do that. He slipped his hand into his belt pack and pulled out two vials. He didn't have anything that would freeze on its own, but a combination of chemicals… he could do it. Problem was if he didn't do it right, he'd blow himself up.

Gritting his teeth, he popped the lid off the chemical vials and held them up at equal height and distance. Taking a breath he closed his eyes and began pouring the chemicals at the same time. The faint trickle of the chemicals burned in his ears, but that wasn't what he was listening for.

'There!' He heard a soft crackling sound that sounded like a thin shell breaking. The sound of liquids stopped and he opened his eyes to see the bomb completely encased in an icy shell.

Crow grinned to himself. 'Take that you home-wrecker!' Internally, he groaned. He had watched too much M*A*S*H with Grayson.

'Well, what's done is done!' He grabbed up the bomb and grappled away from the building, landing on his bike and racing away from there. 'Safe place to explode, safe place to explode,' Crow did a mental head-slap. He wasn't an expert in Star City locations.

'The bay!' Tires shrieked against the pavement as he sped up towards the bay. Freezing the bomb would only last another three minutes.

Adrenaline pumping through his system, time seemed to go faster and he half expected the bomb to blow up with every second ticking. His bike came to a whiplash inducing halt on a dock in an abandoned part of the bay as he used the speed to fling the bomb into the air.

It wasn't far enough.

Crow swung his bike around and sped out of there only seconds before the bomb exploded taking the dock with it. He looked back at the destruction and let out a deep sigh. 'If I ever see Kreed, I'll remember to thank him,' he promised darkly. Damian hated bombs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notice: I wasn't going to post anything today due to a family emergency involving a suicidal member who had attempted, but I felt it wouldn't hurt to post what I have so far and add this note: I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post in the next few days. This has really been a knee to the gut and my head isn't in my works. I know I made the "24" rule and I do intend to pick it back up, but I'll probably be taking a break from writing for a few days and then I'll be back in action.  
> I'm very sorry for not being able to properly focus.
> 
> I'm not religious much at all, but I pray/hope/wish that if anyone has problems believing that they're worth it that they take a moment to look at themselves and tell themselves they are as well as tell someone that they need some support. Holding negative emotions in isn't healthy and it eventually explodes.  
> I appreciate all my readers and if my works can make you smile, it's all worth it.
> 
> Thank you for reading and supporting me. I hope you enjoy this chapter.


	4. Coast City - Moving In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Arsenal and Green Arrow coming too close to the truth and the bombing attempt, Damian feels a move is in order and makes the only logical move - changing cities, which is how he ends in Coast City.

The night following the attempted bombing, Damian found himself zipping out of Star City and heading towards Coast City. He ignored the passing of Teen Titan territory and just kept his eyes straight. He wasn't about to go there again.

Arriving in Coast City, Damian lets out a breath of relief. He's away from his former br-- Jump City and Star City. Maybe he can finally spend some decent time relaxing here.  
He grimaces as he spots a glow of green in the air. Maybe not. He pulls the hood of his grey hoodie over his head and keeps his eyes downcast as he parks in front of an apartment he's rented. Hopefully he'll be here for a month or so, provided nothing terrible happens and gives him up to the local hero. He's not expecting many run-ins with Green Lantern though.

Coast City is relatively safe under Green Lantern's watch, but Green Lantern is mainly a space sector type hero, so even when he goes on off-world missions, the police can handle it. He can only hope that between patrolling this sector and duties with the League keep him busy enough that he doesn't notice Crow in his city.  
Damian locks up his bike and heads into the apartment complex, stopping at the mail section and typing in the security code he was given to get the key from the box. It's a safe place, so he doesn't necessary have to worry about being mugged or anything, but he supposes his paranoia is part of his inherited legacy from both bloodlines. 'Caution averts destruction,' as his mother used to remind him.

He opened his apartment door, ignoring the curious gaze of a passerby in the hall. The apartment was fully furnished and operational. He'd paid extra for that but he could care less about the extra money spent as he dropped his bag on the table and plopped down on the couch with an exhausted sigh.

Patrolling Gotham had been tiring, but so was traveling, as Damian was coming to find out. 'No,' Damian shook his head. It wasn't the traveling. It was the running. It was the avoiding people.

It was curious really. He'd traveled and hid from people before – usually enemies and assassins, but this was truly starting to wear him out, so if he could just avoid Green Lantern here, he'd have some time to relax and build himself back up.

Damian groaned with another thought. His grandfather must be looking for him by now. He would send Ra's assassins after him now that he was no longer under the protection of his father. On a positive note, his mother would pay his father a visit and maybe kick his ass for letting him go. They had an odd love-hate relationship. But if Ra's couldn't have him, no one could and he wasn't about to go back to Ra's and become a killer again.

His stomach growled, interrupting his dark, depressing thoughts. If there was one thing unhampered by his mood and constant moving, it was his stomach. He'd learned early on that hunger could be put off, but even a killer would suffer from letting his hunger become too much. It was that slip-up that was often the downfall of many and Damian had been taught to take care of himself first.

Damian pulled himself up and looked in the bathroom real quick. He'd need to get some necessities and maybe some groceries, but that would be after he ate. He was hungry for something now and he couldn't wait to cook himself anything.

He gathered his things and went out in search of food. Damian found his way inside a diner and slid into a booth with enough time to eat and be out of there before the lunch rush, thank gosh.

Following his early lunch, he headed to the grocery store. He needed bathroom supplies, maybe a few disposable kitchen utensils and food. Definitely food. He ended up buying quite a bit, but it was lucky for him that he was strong despite his small, limber stature and well, the apartment being close by didn't hurt either.

After putting the groceries and other things in their proper place, Damian made another trip out. This time he headed to a supply store where he got some chemicals and any tools that he needed to repair his gear. Needless to say that he would need to find some place to make more mods, which wouldn't be hard to do, just.. tedious. At least back in Gotham he'd received a steady supply of gear. Now, he'd have to make his own.

If anyone was curious as to why a young teen was buying so many chemicals and tools, they held their tongues and for that Damian was grateful. He was a well versed liar and had told more than a lifetime's supply of lies, but he was getting tired of saying them over and over and over again. It was a starting to become boring and repetitive, but he supposes the truth would've been repetitive as well.

Back at his apartment, he spread out tarp on the floor and began to work on repairing some of his equipment. He couldn't very well forge his own mods there, but at least he could repair any and replace his supply of chemicals that he used for cleaning his equipment and for making some chemical weapons (non-fatal).

Four hours in and Damian had begun to yawn. He was mostly done with his repairs anyways, so he simply put everything away and grabbed a blanket and fell asleep on the couch. He did have time for a nap after all and then he'd be out in the dark, searching and memorizing the city's layout.

Waking up was fast and Damian shook sleep off like a blanket. It was part of his training after all. The amount of time from sleep to wake can mean the difference in life and death. He felt a bit stiff from everything, but it didn’t take long for him to stretch back to his normal flexibility.

He could see the sun fading in the distance as darkness began to spread across the sky. Damian sighs as he sets about making a light meal before he heads out on patrol. Pennyworth would never let him out without having something to tide him over. “With all the calories you burn, a little more food here and there never hurts,” Pennyworth had told him once.

After having a few easy to digest foods, he put some protein and energy bars into his bag and pulled on his Crow outfit. He eyed the domino mask there for a second, remembering the first time he’d ever seen it in the Cave. Damian bit his lip and shook himself from the melancholy of his memories and slipped the mask on his face.  
Crow slipped out of the window and down the fire escape without anyone noticing. Night had taken over and no one noticed the young, lone vigilante as he hopped on his bike and raced off into the city, listening to the police scanner for trouble with a grin. Anyone who tried anything would find themselves on the wrong side of an alley. All he needed to be careful of was running into a green glowing nightlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who don't read my other works, I would like to tell you that I am still without a computer and am simply using a library computer, so the updates are still going to take time.
> 
> This chapter doesn't have any action really, so it took me some time to write. Hopefully the next chapter will be better, but it will take more time to write the next chapter without my computer. Thanks for sticking around.  
> Remember to comment if you like. :)


	5. In Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crow wanders the streets of Coast City at night but there's something oddly suspicious going on.

Three nights in and he's stopped a number of robberies, one bank robbery, two muggings, and one attempted carjacking. He still has yet to run into Coast City's own green glow worm, which has him a little worried.

Damian frowns, vaulting onto a roof and climbing higher and higher with his grappling gun until he's reached the rooftop of the highest building. It's a significant distance from his rented apartment, so it's safe-ish, he reasons.

“Time to see why it's so.. silent,” he mutters as he flips on his comm and trains it to the JL broadcasting station. He listens to reports about Grodd escaping in Central, Mr. Freeze in Gotham (which makes him tense up), and a short confirmation that Green Lantern was currently on a space mission, but expected back within the next few days.

Crow frowns at the news. If Green Lantern was occupied with a mission in space, that meant someone else was supposed to be watching his city. Who, though? He hadn’t run into any other heroes. In fact, he had noticed a lack of any heroes. It was disconcerting to say the least.

Despite the disconcerting lack of heroes, Crow found himself vaulting over rooftop ledges late at night. It was invigorating as always. The rush of adrenaline, the cool air beating his face as he flung himself through the air, the crack of fist against body.. It made him feel alive.

There was always the matter of doing good. Crow watched as a young woman ran home following an attempted mugging that he had managed to effectively put an end to at the beginning. With an upturned nose at the pathetic, scraggly man who had attempted the mugging and now lay unconscious, he watched as police took him into custody.

Criminals existed everywhere. There was no place that selfish, violent thought had forced its way in. People could be bad, evil, cruel. It made his blood boil at times. It was one of the reasons he’d backed up the ideals of his grandfather. People were weak and prone to hurting others. If Ra’s could take over, things would be better, so he had believed. Sometimes he still believed it.

He remembered one of the times he’d come upon a human trafficking group that specialized in children. In _children._ It had made his blood boil to see the wounds, the fear in their young eyes, the taint of human depravity.. Batman had suspended him from Robin duties for the brutal treatment of the criminals, but Damian couldn’t help but feel a bit satisfied at the fear in _their_ eyes. No child should ever have to suffer like that.

Crow pulled his hood over his head and hugged himself with an arm at the memory. It was haunting. It was worse than being taken captive by the Joker and beaten bloody.

Shaking himself from those memories, he allowed the warm lights of Coast City to invade his senses. It wasn’t Gotham. It wasn’t as dark and dreary. There wasn’t as much violent, horrifying crime here. It felt.. normal? He wasn’t sure. He’d never been normal himself. All he knew was that it didn’t have as problems as severe as Gotham and he found himself bathing in the differences.

Briefly, he wondered if he should make the move to Coast permanent, but with a flash of remembrance of how the Bat family could track people down, the idea was cut down. Regardless of whether or not they were family anymore, there was no way Batman was going to allow him to continue his vigilante activities without allowances.

Crow chuckled from his seat on the outcrop of a rooftop. Batman would never enforce rules upon him if he couldn’t find him and that’s what Damian was hoping for. Crow would be free to fly wherever he liked and continue to do as he liked. A bird without a clan. Not a Robin, not a Bat. A Crow.

He let his legs dangle over the edge of the rooftop as he rotated his shoulders, one after the other. When a breeze from the west hit him, he could smell the salt in the air and practically taste it on his tongue. It was cleaner than the sea breeze he had experienced in Gotham. It made his heart clench oddly, causing him to rub his chest in confusion.

Sirens echoing throughout the city reached Crow’s ears and he blinked, shaking himself from whatever unusual feeling had come upon him. ‘Time to fly,’ he thought to himself with a small smile as he got up and stretched, pausing to press a button. He stepped back for a moment before leaping into the air, grappling gun at the ready.

Once he had reached the bottom of the building, his bike was waiting for him. Technology was a luxury that he was definitely finding helpful. He’d used horses before with Ra’s, but now, in the cities? He was “getting with the times”, so to speak.

Crow raced through the city, zipping in and out of traffic, passed police cars and an ambulance. The wind whipped his face, unprotected by his helmet. The warm air burning his cheeks along the way.

He skidded to a stop in an alley just beyond the police barrier that had been erected in front of a museum. Everyone was keeping back, even SWAT kept their distance. It made him frown. 'If it were an average robbery SWAT wouldn't be so distanced, they would have set up a parameter and have snipers at the ready,' he noted.

SWAT didn't have any snipers at the ready, but they were heavily armed and had nearly two layers of body armor. If they were busting down doors, that meant one thing – a super powered criminal.

Crow narrowed his eyes, as he flipped on his comm, tuning it to the JL system. There was a moment of static before he was listening to the live feed.

“ _Robbery in progress in Coast City,”_ a voice said. 

“ _Two suspects. One reported to have telekinetic abilities and the other is suspected to be Kreed.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken me so long to update this. Between computer problems and family issues, it's been difficult to get back into writing. This one is pretty difficult to write itself. I usually get inspired by reading other fanfictions and thinking how I'd like to see a scene done, etc. There aren't many good fanfictions that focus on Damian, however. It's always the other members, so this work has been giving me grief. I'll try and do better about it though.
> 
> I've been able to upload and update pretty decently recently, so I'm glad there's that. For those who've been waiting for this chapter, I hope you enjoy it. Let me know how you're enjoying it.


	6. The Hostage & The Bomber

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Responding to the robbery turns out to be a bad idea. Not that he wouldn't do his job. He just didn't expect to see who the hostage was.

Crow freezes, a finger still touching the comm in his ear.

“ _Repeat: Two suspects. One telekenetic and the other possibly the Cadmus agent known as Kreed.”_

Part of Crow shudders at the idea of meeting Kreed face to face, but the other part of him remembers Star City well. It makes his lips turn in a twisted sort of smile that he's adopted during his time as an assassin. It makes the blood thirsty beast, the one that his father hated, growl with the desire to meet this Kreed. The same one who would've blown people to bits in Star and whose bomb Crow had managed to freeze long enough to throw it a safe distance where no one would be hurt.

He decidedly hates Kreed. Now, he's going to get the chance to put him in cuffs. Surely no one will mind if he makes them extra tight.

Crow flips the JL line dead now that he's gotten the information he wanted. Hopefully they won't be tracking it to him any time soon. Well, at the most they'd be able to tell the line had been compromised. He smirked, 'But who would suspect the new player?'

Stealthily, he moves throw the shadows and makes his way onto the outcropping of a window ledge of the museum. Crow eyes over where his bike sits in the darkness. He hopes he has enough mods to use. If not… 'As Mother always said, make do.'

He leans closer and peers through the window onto the ground floor of the museum from the second floor's window. What he sees makes him frown. Sitting deadly still and tied to a bomb is Jason. He shakes himself internally, feeling his body start to retreat.

'No,' he growls at himself. 'Move. MOVE!'

Crow doesn't stop to think about why Jason is there or why he's been such an imbecile as to get caught and strapped to one of  _Kreed's bombs_ , he just knows that he needs to get him out of there. One wrong move and it's bye bye Jason all over again. As if he needed anything more to prove why he makes a terrible family member.

_Where is the Justice League?_

Taking a deep breath, he straightens himself, calming his emotions and locking them away as he has done so many times. He tells himself that this isn't any different than saving a civilian, which he kind of is. Jason appears to be the average rebel son on the outside after all.  'Rebel in the public's eyes and rebel outside their eyes.'

He begins observing the situation, ignoring Jason's predicament.  'Focus on the situation at hand,' he remembers being told during a training exercise where he was trapped in a room with poison gas and told to escape. Sound advice, if he'd ever heard it.

'First thing's first…' Crow slipped a gas mask on his face securely and narrowed his eyes at the tele kenetic . He nudged the window open and threw a gas bomb right in front of the super powered being. Criminals and victim alike began coughing loudly.

With the tele kenetic 's vision tamed and being properly distracted, Crow knocked him out cold after he landed in the fray. He frowned, hearing the remaining two coughing. The smoke was beginning to lift and he didn't like his odds at all with Kreed there.

“Ah-ah-ah!” Kreed stood before him as the smoke finally cleared with a small button in his hand.

'...shit.'

Crow's eyes flicked to Jason, who sat there looking beyond enraged to be unable to do anything in his situation. To be saved by a new player would only further the anger and frustration, Crow knew. He had not the time to explain that he was Damian and he's not actually sure he wanted to.

“So.. you're the little hero that the Justice League sent? Are you even old enough to drive?”

Crow ground his teeth, outwardly displaying no anger. He was a master of retaining his cool facade after all.

“I'd ask your name, but remembering the name of a small fry isn't worth it.”

He raised an eyebrow looking at Kreed and allowed a smirk to twist his lips upwards. “A 'small fry'?”  Crow laughed a small, confident laugh. “I'm no small fry.”

He pulled a few mods from his belt and held them in his hand and stood there looking cocky.  Crow winced when he saw a realization light up in Jason's eyes. He took a few dangerous seconds to glare at Jason, hoping he'd stay quiet and keep his mouth shut.

“Well, then… Let's see,” Kreed grins as he puts the detonator in one of his vest pockets for safe keeping. “If you win, you get the detonator. If I win,” Kreed continued, eyes darkening, “I get to do whatever I want with your life.”

Crow held back a shudder as Kreed's disgusting eyes ran over his form. He snorts, “As if you could win.”

Crow makes the first move, flinging mods. Kreed flings them off with some very impressive arm guards. He moves with a ferocious style that sets Crow ill at ease. He knew Kreed was an expert with explosives, but had he been so talented with martial arts? He couldn't remember.

They broke apart oddly. Kreed eyes him, searching for a moment before some sort of recognition glints in his eyes. “You… you were the one who took care of my bomb in Star City,” he says with such certainty that it makes Crow uneasy. It must've shown because Kreed grins and responds. “Oh, you  _are,_ ” he laughs, kicking Jason as he'd managed to get closer to him during the fight.

Jason grunts, face twitching in pain  and concern for the bomb . Crow growls, “Leave him  _alone!”_

Kreed raises an eyebrow with interest. “Why? I've finally gotten what I want. A little rich Gotham brat to rub in the Bat's face.”

Crow blinked, thoughts racing to make sense of what Kreed was saying. 'He.. Oh.. It's.. it's a trap.' It struck him that this was bigger than Kreed. Bigger than just some simple  robbery  or some petty personal plot.

“Are you working for Cadmus on this? What are they planning?” Crow bit out, eyes flickering to Jason, who's own eyes widened with realization – the same realization that Crow had just had.

Kreed's lips curled in a smile that reminded Damian of the time that his mother had left him in a forest, deep, deep beyond human reach where hungry wolves and other creatures roamed. His smile was just like that of a pack of wolves that had gotten so close to tearing his throat out. It made Crow shiver slightly.

“Why don't you find out,” Kreed cackled as he stepped closer to Jason, detonator in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update. I meant to do it sooner, but I haven't been feeling well and have also gotten a bit more busy than I would have liked.
> 
> Let me know how you like this chapter. I hope you enjoyed.
> 
> P.S. What do you think will happen next?
> 
> (Any mistakes - I apologize for.)


	7. "Mutual Victory"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kreed makes Crow an offer he can't afford to refuse and Jason hates it.

“ _Why don't you find out,” Kreed cackled as he stepped closer to Jason, detonator in hand._

Crow instantly knows this is all about to go to Hell. Any get away plans he's made are going to burn to ash.

“What do you mean, Kreed?” Crow's eyes meet Jason's briefly before returning to Kreed.

Kreed just smiles, like it's a pleasant business meeting. Damian's seen those smiles before. They look like the people his Father deals with when they have a meeting regarding collaboration between companies. The same smile that says that they have a secret agenda and they'll do anything to assure that everything turns out in their favor.

“Now, now… Little...” Kreed looks him over again. “What's your name, child?”

“Crow.”

Kreed quirks a brow and Crow snorts. As if he was going to answer with his real name. Seriously?

Ignoring the lack of a real name, because seriously, he wasn't going to just give out his secret identity – thus the mask – Kreed holds out one hand towards Crow.

“Crow,” he says, tongue rolling on the amusing nickname. “How about we make a deal?”

Jason's eyes narrow at Crow and he glares hard at him, but Crow just shrugs it off and doesn't even make eye contact as he replies. “A 'deal'? What kind of deal?”

“I get what I want and you get what you want. A sort of,” Kreed waves his hand as if he's waving away any form of negative implication on his suggestion, “mutual victory for both parties.”

' _Mutual victory_ my ass,' Crow snarks to himself mentally.

“And what is it that I 'want', Kreed?”

Kreed nudges Jason with the toe of his boot. “Why, I assume you want this..”

Crow grinds his teeth together, itching to fly over there and knock that lunatic's teeth out for daring to threaten his bro--- a civilian. He draws himself together and raises an eyebrow, looking outwardly relaxed. “That's a big assumption.”

Kreed smiles, kneeling next to Jason and patting his cheek with his hand. Jason doesn't flinch at the hand on his cheek, but it certainly makes him tense up. “Is it? I have no doubt that you care about innocent lives.”

Crow almost wants to tell him that Jason, no matter how he appears to the world's eyes, is hardly what he'd call innocent. He's definitely not what Crow would call weak.  Still.. something tugs at his insides.

“And what is it you want?” Crow asks, forcing his muscles to appear outwardly relaxing.

Jason gives him a look that usually implies he thinks Damian's “bat shit crazy”.

Kreed gives him a toothy smile, “Why, you of course.”

Crow's brows furrow. This isn't what he'd been expecting. “Why?” he can't stop himself from asking even though he knows it's a bad idea, a really, really bad idea.

Kreed gives him a very obvious once over and he feels his stomach clench. “Well, we were going to use this little rich brat for our.. research, but I think you'll do much better,” he purred, sickly.

Jason's glaring at Kreed so hard, Crow is surprised that Kreed hasn't spontaneously combusted already. He's not sure why Jason looks like he wants to put a bullet in Kreed's head, but he attributes it to Kreed just being that kind of depraved criminal.

“Fine.”

Jason's wide eyes land on Crow and it seems, for once, that Damian has stunned him into stupidity.

Kreed's smile widens and Damian feels unpleasantly like he's not going to get out of this.

“But. You're going to let him go first. Got it?” Crow kept his voice even and his face, calm.

Grinning, Kreed replied, “Of course.” He bent down and cut the binds from Jason's limbs and his mouth, dragging him up, less than carefully and pushing him towards Crow. “I'll give you the detonator when I have you.”

If Damian says he didn't shiver at those words, it would be a lie.

Jason threw a cautious look back at Kreed before he stomped over to Crow and curled his arms around Crow's  bicep. “Baby bat,  _what the fuck!?”_ he hissed in a voice to low for Kreed to hear.

Crow rolled his eyes and tugged his arm from Jason's grasp. “Hello to you too.”

Jason glared at Crow, running his eyes over Crow's form. “Well, nice to see you're alive.”

Damian's eyes narrowed at Jason behind his mask. “Of course I'm alive. As if I'd be so foolish as to perish so easily.”

Jason just gave him a dirty look. “Do you realize that we- they've been looking for you?  _Everyone_ has been looking for you!”

Crow stared at Jason, cocking his head to the side, brows furrowing. “I can't imagine you telling a tale,” he admitted, unable to find a reason that Jason would be lying.

“Of course I'm not lying! Why would I be -” Jason's words died in his throat and a sad expression fluttered across his face before he swallowed. “You.. honestly didn't think we wouldn't look for you? That we wouldn't care if you were suddenly gone?”

When Crow didn't respond, Jason swore. In several different languages. “Da- Crow,” he corrected himself, gritting his teeth, “You  _dumbass!”_

Crow felt slightly insulted. “We might not always act like it, but we're a family. Fucked up as we all are, but we're a family. You're our family,”  Jason ended with some look that Damian had never seen in his eyes before – in any of the eyes of those of the Bat family, at least not towards him.

As much as he'd like to ponder Jason's words, he shook his head free of the thoughts and pressed his comm in Jason's hands when Kreed looked away for a moment. “Go,” Crow urged.

Jason opened his mouth to protest but Crow cut him off with an icy glare.  _“GO!”_

Crow took a breath and stepped away from Jason and then with one last glance back, he walked over. He stopped right in front of Kreed, whose eyes made him feel like he needed the strongest metals on Earth as an armor from his predatory gaze.

Kreed cooed, “Good birdie.” Crow barely restrained himself from breaking Kreed's neck right then and there, but he was more than aware of how Kreed had his finger on the trigger.

“Now then...” he grinned. Crow was about to ask, 'what now?' when a hand wrapped around him and pressed down. 'Shit,' Crow thought as he blacked out, last thoughts worried about Jason's fate. There was no explosion, but he knew there were no guarantees he'd hear it unconscious. Still.. he his vision faded and his body slumped forward into Kreed's arms.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay in updating this. I was really spinning my wheels in an attempt to try and muddle through this chapter. I want to get to this scene I keep picturing but I have to have the stuff in between too, right? Haha, oh well. I liked the idea of the trade.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it. Please comment if you can, they always help me to get ideas or brighten my day. Thank you~


	8. Found & Taken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I found him. It was him. The brat was the Crow all along."

“Fuck!” Jason cursed, slamming his hand into the door of the museum as police rushed into the complex. He wanted to get out there and drag that kid back and beat him and ask him what the _fuck_ he was thinking.

For whatever reason, he knew when the light flicked off on the bomb attached to him that it had been deactivated. “Probably that brat had something to do with it,” he muttered angrily.

“Shit Baby-bat! What the _absolute fuck!?”_ This was one of those times he regretted not bringing his guns, or any kinda of weapons that he could've used against Kreed and that telekentic. He felt pathetic to have been captured so easily, but he even he could admit that if he could've had weapons, he would've blown his civilian cover.

'Fuck! How could we all be so fucking  _blind!_ Of course Crow's Damian!' It was so obvious now. Everyone had practically blown it off until the mods were discovered. Then they got suspicious. But could it really be their Damian? How could he have gotten that technology?

Jason was going to wring Dick's neck for not going with him to the museum's party. Though, Dick was going to wring his own neck harder. Once he found out what happened.. how Crow – no, how  _Damian_ had traded his life for Jason's.. Dick was going to be so  _pissed._

He winced as the ringtone on his recovered phone blared just beneath the commotion of sirens and police officers. 'Don't be Dick.. Don't be Dick..' he begged.

_Tim._ 'Of thank fuck,' he sighed as he hit the 'accept' button. “Tim?”

“ _Jason, we just saw the news. What the fuck happened!?”_

It was official. Jason's phone was a liar.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he let some bomb technician's take the bomb off of him. “Dick,” he ground out. “Lovely to hear from you. You want to know what happened?  _You should've been here.”_

Jason could practically hear Dick's frown through the phone.  _“Well, yeah. But considering I needed to look through Star again to see if Dami showed up, you were the only one who could go.”_

Glancing around, he walking into a nearby alley, away from the hustle and bustle. “No. Dick, I mean, you  _really_ should've been there.”

“ _..What do you mean?”_

He swallowed, “I found him. It was him. The brat was Crow all along.”

“ _Well.. we did suspect – But, you mean that Crow showed up there? He's the vigilante who got you out? Where is he? Surely you grabbed him to make sure he didn't run, right?”_

Grinding his teeth, he hissed, “Damn Dick. Shut the fuck up for once and listen closely. You need to get Bats involved. The League, the Titans.. everyone! You need to do it now.”

“ _..What aren't you telling me? What happened?”_ Dick's cold, demanding voice bit into Jason over the phone.

Hesitating for a moment, he answered, “Cadmus took him. He traded himself for me.” Jason felt his stomach lurch as he finally said it out loud. He still could hardly believe it. He hadn't known.. Hadn't known that the brat was willing to trade himself for Jason. ..Was all that cold-heartedness really just a facade? Did Damian actually care?

Jason wanted to hit himself over the head with a metal pipe. That or get wasted on some of Bruce's expensive shit and forget that he couldn't see passed Damian's cold exterior. Maybe Dick and Tim would join him.. After all, it was all of their faults. They'd been so distant and beyond arms' length with the brat.

_'Shit._ He's not a 'brat'. He's our baby bat. Being a brat was just.. a lie.'

'...And we drove him away,' Jason felt a painful pang in his heart. He wasn't normally one to self-hate. Okay, yeah, he kinda was, but not over others' opinions or whether or not they liked him and vice versa.

“Dick?” Brows furrowing, he questioned with concern, “Are you still there? Did you hear me?” His voice broke the silence.

“ _..Where.”_ Jason didn't flinch very often, but Dick's anger was always something to fear. He burned inside with a kind of fire that would bleed into his eyes and make anyone who saw them feel like they were facing their death.

“I don't.. I don't know,” he admitted, guilty and feeling weak.

“ _We'll find him. And Jason?”_

Jason gulped, swallowing back his anxious nerves that lit up when Dick used that voice. “Yeah, Dick?” He winced as his voice cracked a little.

“ _When we find them.. No one who's laid a finger on Dami walks away.”_ Dick's hardened voice demanded.

Jason forced a small smirk on his face and made his tone a bit lighter to try and ease Dick's anger. “Damn right, Wing.”

“ _..I'm heading there now. Tim is contacting the League and Batman. I'll see you soon.”_

The tone of the phone rang in his ear after the call ended. Jason leaned against the wall with a sigh.  He send out a quick message to “Robin Hood” and closed his eyes. “Hang on, Baby Bat,” he breathed out in a quick prayer. “Hang in there. We're coming.”

“And who is this? I thought you were bringing back that rich Gotham brat,” Amanda Waller, the overseer of Cadmus asked, raising an eyebrow. She was hardly impressed with Kreed bringing in some random kid vigilante that had barely even had time to make a name for himself.

Kreed grinned at her as he handed the slumped over kid to one of the soldiers. “He's strong and he moves  _a lot_ better than that rich punk from Gotham.”

Waller didn't look impressed so he rolled his eyes. “And he seems to have League of Assassin training as well as these,” he handed one of the mods over to her.

She took it, a gleam in her eyes. “These look like Gotham's own Dark Knight's,” she said, accusatory.

Kreed shrugged. “Who knows. I doubt the Bat would let one of his own out into the world, so.. young.” He eyed the kid in the soldier's arms.

Waller grinned as the the soldier laid the kid down on a gurney and strapped him in to be taken to the laboratories. “Perhaps we'll finally find out who the Bat really is.” Kreed smiled her with as he watched the kid be wheeled away, maskless. “Perhaps so.”

“Maybe this is worth you're abandoning that telekenetic 348 after all,” she mentioned.

“I'm sure it will be,” Kreed expressed. Despite her threats, he felt sure of his discovery of this little.. copycat bird of Gotham's. 'Yes,' he thought, remembering the moves and skill of Crow, 'he'll do quite nicely.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so much trouble with this chapter. Not the content, just.. ugh. I couldn't get that dang line to go away. Every time I pressed 'enter' there'd be a new line. So I had to copy and transfer the entire thing to write the scene with Cadmus. Frustration at 3AM. x.x;
> 
> Hope you're having a good week so far. I also hope you enjoyed this chapter. This is my first time writing from Jason's perspective, so.. please let me know what you thought of it.  
> Thanks, as always, for reading~


	9. More Than You Think

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Batman is tired of hearing the League argue over ways they could expand their search for Damian.
> 
> Damian, on the other hand, is waking up in one of the last places any hero would ever want to be.

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose over his cowl in frustration. Wally was arguing with John and Superman was being passive aggressive as usual.

“I'm telling you, if we all just search every freaking League location we can find him!” Wally was arguing.

“And I'm telling you that we can't just butt into League business if we aren't sure,” John argued back.

“Guys, please. We all want to help Bruce find Damian but this isn't helping any,” Clark was saying.

It had been like this for the passed few months and it was nice that they were concerned about Damian, but Bruce couldn't help but feel that they weren't really that concerned. They hadn't involved themselves with Damian before he ran off and all of a sudden they wanted to help him? Bruce wanted to call bullshit on the entire subject.

He was just about to too, until his comm went off and he turned away from the noisy group. “Yeah?” he sighed, a tired tint to his voice.

“ _Bruce.”_ It was Dick. He started to tell Dick that it wasn't a good time when his breath caught at the next thing Dick said. _“Jason found him.”_

“ _What._ ” Everyone at the table quieted, eyes snapping onto Bruce, curious and concerned. “Where?” Bruce demanded, muscles tense.

“ _Jason was taken hostage in Coast City about an hour ago.”_ Bruce started, because he definitely hadn't heard of that. They should've been tied into the police system though so how.. He shook that worry away for now and focused on what Dick was saying.

“ _Crow. Damian was Crow. He saved Jason from_ _K_ _reed. And then..”_ Dick's voice trailed off before Bruce heard him swallow. 'Summoning courage..'

“ _He.. he traded himself for Jason.. Cadmus took him, Bruce. Cadmus has him.”_ Dick's voice broke a little and all the oxygen left his lungs. Bruce felt like he'd just take an extremely heavy hit. His armor, weighing him down.

The room whirled and he gripped the chair's arm, making it creak under pressure. “Fuck,” he swore opening as he closed his eyes tightly and ground his teeth.

“ _..Bruce?”_ He ignored the voices of his fellow League members, worried about his sudden drastic change.

“I'm coming back now. Find any information you can.” Bruce told him, voice ice cold and commanding.

Dick would've normally fired back something about him “not being Batman's Robin” anymore, but Dick took the order without any protest.  _“Got it. I'm on my way to Coast now.”_

Bruce clicked the comm off and pulled his cowl off, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees and bury his face in his hands.

“..Bruce? Is everything okay?” Diana asked, frowning. Everyone was quiet, staring at him with openly panicking expressions.

“Cadmus has him. They have Damian,” he breathed out, his own hands making his words muffled.

  


Light was painful, Damian decided. He winced as light seemed to burn his eyes. He had to blink several times to adjust to the florescent lighting. He tried to bring his hand up to rub his eyes, hopefully massage the residual pain from them when a  _-clink-_ stopped him.

“What the..” his voice trailed off as he caught sight of heavy chains wrapped around his limbs. There was some sort of technology inside the metal bands that held him wrists and ankles.

“Finally awake, eh?” Damian followed Kreed's voice up. Kreed was standing, nonchalant on the other side of an energy barrier that was meant to keep him in and everyone, except those with clearance, out.

Damian narrowed his eyes at Kreed, who huffed out a laugh. “That's a lovely face there, bird.”

He sucked in a gasp as he realized that his face was naked. He had no mask to hide behind. It made him grit his teeth with anger, frustration, and fear. Kreed smiled, amused at Damian's emotions as they flickered over his face before vanishing within a short span of time.

“Pretty cute for a crime fighting kid. How old are you?” Kreed asked, curiously.

Damian sniffed. “Old enough and skilled enough.”

Kreed raised an eyebrow and tapped his jaw for a moment. “So.. Bird. Got a name?” he asked with a sick, greedy grin.

The question made him grin. They had no idea who he was. Damian could read that much from Kreed's question. 'It worked,' Damian giggled secretly to himself. 'The program worked!'

Damian had snuck a program from Drake's laptop that had remained unfinished for months. He's pretty sure it had been forgotten anyways, so he took it without any hesitation. It was designed to locate people based on their faces. Damian, however, tweaked it a bit.

Although he wasn't known for his computer skills, he did have them. They were just often buried beneath the technological accomplishments of Gordon and Drake that he found himself not using them when others could see. He knew enough to take Drake's forgotten program, which was slightly incomplete, and turn it into a one track program with the sole purpose of ensuring that “Damian Wayne” an d “Damian Age” were never connected.

It was a program that could trick all others who sought to identify his DNA into blatantly ignoring Damian Wayne's DNA and instead, bringing up Damian Age's. Even if they did venture beyond Damian Age, the program would muddle Damian Wayne's DNA results so that it  _wasn't_ a possibility. It also was quick to blur out any and all images and references that could reveal his heritage.

And if they tried to identify him based on appearance? He'd had his hair dyed and styled. Instead of a thick black, it was a dark brown. His eyes? Damian had been able to get ahold of a new drug that turned your eyes a different color for six months. Sure, he'd taken it two months ago, but he was hoping it wouldn't be a concern. After all, he refused to be Cadmus' pet project for long.

“Crow.” His lips curved in a devious grin. Despite the fact that he'd done so much to hide his identity, he wasn't just going to tell them his alias' name. What kind of idiocy would that be? Damian was smarter than that.

Kreed narrowed his eyes and glared at him, demanding to know his name. Crow tilted his head, continuing to smile. He may have been locked up, but he could still enjoy the simple things in life. Like vexing criminals. Why should a cage and chains change that?

A calm washed over Kreed's face that erased his irritation and frustration with Crow. It was.. disconcerting to say the least. “Well,” Kreed said, “that's alright. We're going to have plenty of time, you and me.” The way he said it made Damian want to shiver.

“I'll see you around, Pretty Bird.”

Once Kreed was gone, Damian began to take inventory. He had been.. stripped of all his belongings. At least.. the one's that Cadmus had been able to find. Grinning, Damian found a slight bulge in his arm, where he'd begun to keep a little homing beacon. He had no way to cut it out right now, but he had time. They didn't mean to kill him just yet. Cadmus would want their experiments done first.

He would have plenty of opportunities to grab some knife or something sharp to get the job done later. Caution was, of course, necessary, but while he was here.. Crow would make sure to find out as much information between now and his possible escape as he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello~ I have mixed feelings about this chapter. It has a lot of explaining on Damian's efforts to conceal his identity. I haven't tapped into how he feels about seeing Jason again yet, but I hope to try some in the next chapter.
> 
> Please let me know what you thought of it. Have a good day/night~


	10. Regrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Needless to say, no one is taking Damian's capture well. Not even Damian.

Needless to say Dick was pissed. Jason was pissed. Even Tim was pissed. After having looked so hard for their little brother, after having found him.. He was gone again.

Cadmus had taken him away from them. Boy were they ready to tear Cadmus apart looking for him.  Also.. Dick may or may not have used the Zeta beam to beam himself  _ plus _ his bike all the way to Coast City. It worked out.

As Nightwing, he slammed on the brakes, screeching to a halt out in front of the museum that Jason had called from. There were still cops there, EMTs.. Honestly, he could care less though.

Jason slipped out from the shadows, dressed as Red Hood. It made him pause and raise an eyebrow. If he'd been less worried about Damian, he'd ask if Jason had kept his suit nearby and  _ how _ , but he was worried – insanely so. There was no way that he could keep his calm long enough to marvel over Jason's fast change.

“How was he..?” Nightwing asked when Hood got closer. It wasn't hard to see the way Hood was wound up, at least not to his trained eyes. He was a step away from setting something on fire and if he did? He'd be right there beside him.

“He's good actually. We've seen some camera shots of Crow with Bats, but his outfit really works for him,” Hood told him. “Had some sick modified batarangs though.”

Nightwing held out his hand and Hood rolled his eyes, dutifully handing him the mod. Of course Nightwing could knew he'd kept one. Of course.

Nightwing busied himself by looking over the mod. It was well done. Sharp, aerodynamic and would cause a beautiful curve in the air. Swallowing, he put it away for the moment. “Bats should be on his way here.”

Hood grunted in acknowledgment.

“So what happened.. the full story,” Nightwing demanded. Hood could only sigh and lean against the wall, fists clenched at his sides as he recounted the tale of his night in his civilian identity. He had to take a breath along the way to keep from exploding with frustration as he told Nightwing about how Crow.. how Damian traded himself for Jason.

The leather polymer of Nightwing's gloves squeezed as his fingers curled into shaking fists. He was so angry. At Cadmus. At Kreed. At himself.. 'How could he do that..' Nightwing shook his head. 'Why did he do that?'

“He cares.” Nightwing looked at Hood. “We thought he didn't care as much as we did, but we were wrong. He cares far too much,” Hood said.

Nightwing's insides twisted in all the wrong ways as he thought back.

“ _Grayson,” Damian tapped his foot, annoyed. “You're dripping all over the carpet,” he'd bluntly told him. “Either get changed or I'll deck you.”_

_ Dick had blinked, a little stunned at the way Damian had talked to him. “What..?” _

“ _If you're ears aren't working right, I suggest you see a physician. If they're working,_ _ **get changed.** _ _ ” _

He swallowed a lump in his throat.

“ _Are you two absolute idiots? Pennyworth_ _ **said** _ _ the wiring is faulty for that plug. He told you this yesterday. If you try to plug that DVD player in, it will fry it,” Damian had informed them with a glare. _

“Shit..” Nightwing murmured to himself. He could see it better now. Clearer. Damian had been looking out for him – for them. He'd wanted them to be healthy, to be  _ safe. _

And what had they done when he'd started to pull away? They'd left him to it, afraid to annoy or anger him, unwilling to deal with his blunt personality. They'd driven him from his home.. made him feel like he was an outsider. Sure, it hadn't been intentional, but they'd done nothing to make him feel otherwise, at least nothing that he could've plainly seen.

Damian wasn't like they were. He wasn't raised with a loving family before he became a bat. He'd been raised to be the heir of Ra's, the League of Assassins. Obviously, Damian  _ didn't know _ how to act with a family that could care for him more than Ra's could.

“Yeah,” Hood said, leaning his back on the wall, looking up at the murky starless sky of the city. “I know.”

  


Tim Drake was freaking out. He was beyond freaking out. He was in a full-fledged panic as he dug through his box of gadgets, throwing the ones that would be useless to him over his shoulder. “Damn it.. Damn it.. Damn it!”

He cursed every single waking moment of his life that he'd ever let Damian slip away. He'd been startled, he knows, when Damian had first come to them. Pissed even, but that was no excuse for how he'd acted. He was supposed to be more responsible, more understanding.  _ 'Fuck it all, I was supposed to be his older brother.' _

He slammed his fist down on his thigh, cursing. He'd seen the way that Damian's princely personality had slipped up once or twice, but he'd always found a way to convince himself that it was just an illusion. Ever since Damian left, he'd been wondering otherwise. And now? His mind was full of all the little things that he'd not paid attention to.

Tim closed his eyes, thinking back to the time that he'd gotten a cold and visited from Jump City. Damian had violently thrown a box at his head. 'Of course it wasn't a coincidence that it was cold medicine,' he scolded himself fiercely. 'How could I have neglected to see it?'

Continuing to dig through his gadgets, he hoped and prayed that wherever Damian was, he was alright because he swore that he'd find Damian no matter what. 'Heaven help Cadmus if I ever get my hands on them.'

  


Damian groaned, curled up in a little ball on a cot in his “new home” - his cell. His body was littered with puncture marks from needles and bruises from “physical tests”. Pain made his vision blur and made his head spin as he rolled over, immediately curling back up.

This was the second time they'd taken him, used him.. He still hadn't found quite the right sharp object or opportunity to take one yet and it was frustrating. Twice already he'd been hauled out by guards with heavy chains covering his limbs until they'd reached a lab or testing area and then he'd been forced to do whatever they asked or face even more pain.

'I want to go..'  _ Home _ remained left out of that thought. Home – was a blank spot for him. But the very idea filled him with longing. He wanted one – a home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all~ I wasn't planning to add this yet, but once I got started I couldn't stop myself.  
> This was my first introduction of Tim into this story, but I think he was easier to write than Batman (sorry Bats).
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it and hopefully it makes all of you lovely readers smile to wake up to a new chapter (unless you're still awake when you read this - Saturday after all). :)


	11. Becoming Something New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kreed's enjoying the ongoing process of Crow's changes even if Crow isn't. It's not up to him though.

Watch ing the Bird from outside of his cage, Kreed couldn't help but smile. There were rumors that he was cold-hearted, but right now he felt a blister of pride well up for this little thing that he'd captured for Cadmus. 'Pretty Bird is doing so well.'

He'd watched as Cadmus researchers had strapped the young one down and proceeded to snap his arm, breaking the forearm's bone in two. Crow hadn't even let out a whimper. It was quite impressive.

Kreed was starting to think that this change in plan was turning out for the better. Sure he didn't have the spoiled brat from Gotham – no, he had a boy with League of Assassins training. Had he actually taken Jason Todd, he's not sure that the brat would've been able to keep himself from crying out.

No, he shook his head. He'd made the right choice trading the brat for the young vigilante. This way he didn't have to teach him as much. Cadmus had a stronger subject for their experiments and once they were done, Kreed would have his own partner to help him destroy the League.

“We're going to have lots of fun together,” he smirked at Crow before leaving the boy alone.

Approaching some of the scientists, he asked, “Have you got his real name yet?” They shook their heads causing Kreed to raise an amused eyebrow. It wasn't every day someone could hide themselves from Cadmus.

He turned back, looking at the hall that eventually led to his caged prize. “Well, secret or not, you're mine now.”

  


Damian shuddered as his arm throbbed painfully. It made him nauseous to the point where he swore he'd have thrown up if he'd have had anything substantial in his stomach. He was at least lucky that they'd thought to splint his arm before throwing him back into his little private cage.

His stomach rolled as he eyed the splint. There was a mark above it from the needle they had stuck him with and emptied some kind of green liquid into his veins. Whatever it was was a dull burn in his veins, unlike the fire it had been when they'd first injected him with it.

He felt as weak as a newborn kitten. Damian snorted at the idea. 'Grayson would love that.'

A cold feeling settled on his shoulders as he looked around his bare cage. A cot with a few blankets, a urinal, and a sink. It was better than it could've been, but all Damian cared about was that he shouldn't have been there.

Maybe if he'd done something differently? Told someone about where he was going, gotten help?

He remembered the way the world shook when he saw Todd, captive. It had rocked his world in a painful sort of way that he hadn't expected. It wasn't supposed to be that way. He wasn't supposed to feel that way. At least.. he hadn't expected to.

Did he love them?

Damian snorted. 'As if I know what love is.' His family didn't love him. That was sure as Hell. His frozen heart wasn't capable of love. He was an al Ghul. An assassin born and bred.

But that panic…

He shook the idea off. He didn't feel like analyzing whatever had prompted him to throw himself to the lions. He knew that, yes, he did care for Todd and the rest of the Bat family, but love? He was neither ready nor able to think about it.

Shivering, he reached out with his arm and pulled a thick, scratchy blanket from the cot and curled up in the corner with it. 'Just a fever,' he told himself. 'Quick nap and it'll be gone.'

'Just a quick nap..' he repeated, trailing off as his eyes shut, weakly.

  


One nap became two, and two became three, and three.. As the days went on, Damian was further exhausted. He'd wake up from a nap to be drag out and into the labs to be strapped down and broken or injected with something.

Still, he wasn't just letting them have him. Damian proudly broke the jaw of one of the researchers who'd tried to touch his thigh. The man had cried bloody murder and glared so hard that it was laughable. He hadn't regretted it, even after his arm had been rebroken.

He began to notice things after his first day. The injections with the green liquid were always prompt and came without fail. He hated the burn, but he couldn't stop it when he was strapped down.

Another thing was how they'd begun to give him an IV after he noticed his broken arm..healing. Faster than normal for the average human. It was barely enough to grab his attention at first, but then it sped up.

A week and a half into it (he guessed), he couldn't contain his awe at the way he'd gone to sleep with a broken ankle and had woken up completely healed.

“That's.. new,” Damian noted as he let his ankle twist around, testing it.  They'd made sure to break it brutally, drawing a cry of pain from him as they twisted the broken limb afterwards. Now? It didn't even appear to have been broken before. There was no pain at all.

  


Kreed grinned as he watch the boy narrow his eyes and test his ankle. “ Enjoying the new.. gifts Cadmus has given you, are you Pretty Bird?” He chuckled darkly as Crow startled and quickly turn to him, back to the wall with guarded eyes.

The glare is actually quite cute, Kreed believes, but he also sees a hint of something sharp underneath the childish face. It makes him want to shiver with joy. He smiles a toothy smile as he looks over the boy. 'Dangerous,' Kreed admits to himself, 'but' he continues, 'he's going to be all mine.'

Crow threatens to kill him, but all it does is make Kreed snort in amusement and say, “Don't worry. One day soon, you'll forget all about your.. dislike of me.” His eyes twinkle as he tells the boy, “Instead of standing against me, you'll stand at my side.”

  


Damian glares daggers at Kreed as he hears Kreed's wild statements. He will  _ never _ stand at Kreed's side.  _ Never. _ So he takes a page from Todd's book and flips Kreed off. Kreed huffs with amusement as he leaves.

A hand snakes down onto his ankle and he squeezes the abnormally fast healed limb. “I am.. grateful Todd's not here,” he admits to himself, heart feeling a bit tight, “but at the same time, I wish he were...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello~  
> I have to say that this wasn't exactly a planned chapter. It just.. became whatever it is at the end. I'm hoping to get to the exciting stuff soon. Don't wanna torture Damian any longer than needs be.
> 
> Please let me know what you thought. Thanks~


	12. Getting Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After searching for almost two weeks, the Bat family finally catches a break.

“ Where. Is.  _ Crow!?” _ Nightwing demands angrily as he holds a Cadmus researcher he'd found up by the throat against the wall. He hardly cares as the man kicks, whimpering.

“I won't ask again,” Nightwing hisses.  _ “Tell me!” _

He lets up and the man drops to the floor, coughing and sputtering with tears running down his cheeks. “I-I..” his voice is hoarse from being strangled. “I don't know where he is.”

Nightwing reaches out and grips the man by the shirt, pulling him forward with rage.

The man whimpers, squirming, “I only know what they're trying to do!” Nightwing's eyes narrow as the man cries out.

“ _What are they trying to do him.”_

“Th-they're trying to change his DNA to make him a meta,” the man whines as he shakes.

“What!?” Nightwing snaps.

“I-I don't know if they have, just – it – They can do it. It'll take a few weeks, but the changes are fast  enough to tell.. Oh please, let me go!” the man blubbers.

Nightwing looks down his nose at the pathetic creep, but gathers himself long enough to kneel down beside the man and look him in the eye. “How do I find him.”

The researcher shook his head fervently, “I- I don't have the clearance to know.” Nightwing growls and punches the man in the face so hard he falls on his back, unconscious.

“Nightwing to everyone. I've got some news. I'll meet you at the Watchtower,” he reports, eyeing the Cadmus grunt.

“ _Roger that, Wing,”_ Hood's voice says over the speakers, followed by other forms of understanding from Red Robin and Batman.

He looks over the researcher for a moment, evil grin growing on his face as he reaches out and pulls the man up and over his shoulder. “You and I are taking a trip.”

He hums a tune he'd heard Damian hum once as he walks over to his bike to head towards the nearest Zeta beam.  _ 'It's Going to Be Bloody'  _ was its title and right now Nightwing was cheerfully humming it with full agreement to its namesake. It was going to be bloody when he got his hands on Cadmus.

  


Jason raised an eyebrow as Dick plopped down an unconscious man in front of him on the Watchtower. “Friend of yours?”

Nightwing grinned, sharply. “We're going to get even closer.” Jason couldn't help but admit, he almost pitied the poor bastard. Then he remembered why Dick would bring someone with him and he had to fight to keep from ripping the sucker apart with his bare hands.

“And this is..?” They looked over to see Batman and Red Robin walking up to them with Superman on their heels.

“Cadmus researcher,” Nightwing answered, trying not to smile when Red Robin reached out with his leg and nudged the unconscious son of a bitch.

“ What'd you find out?” Batman asked as Superman hauled the man up with a disapproving look at Nightwing. Batman really didn't care what Superman had to say.

Nightwing's good humor faded and they watched as his fingers curled into trembling fists of anger, a scowl on his face. “He said they were..” he took a breath, “trying to make him into a meta-human.”

Jason's lips drew together tightly as he glared at the unconscious man as if he was the cause of everything and possibly thinking that killing him would bring Damian back.

“He what?” Batman growled. “They're experimenting on my so- on  _ Damian.” _

Tim's anger felt dulled as numbness swept over him. “What did he say? All of it,” he demanded calmly.

Dick ran a hand through his hair, frustrated and angered. “He said they're trying to change his DNA to make him into a meta. He said 'trying,' but he also said the changes began happening fast and implied that the process took a few weeks, so I'd gather that it's not the newest..experiment and has already produced a few results.”

Batman narrowed his eyes, staring at Dick for a moment before he lashed out, grabbing the grunt and ripping him from Superman's hold. Tim took a few moments to process that.

“Bruce!” Superman protested with wide surprised eyes.

Bruce held the man up by his collar, glaring daggers into the man's head and coming so so close to breaking his non-lethal rules of vigilante-ism. He couldn't help but think that this was one of the men who'd taken his son, who had him, who was  _ hurting him. _

“ Batman.”

Bruce looked up to see J'onn standing close by. “I shall take him.” He  suppressed his desire to strangle the bastard and wordlessly handed the unconscious man to J'onn. “Whatever he knows, I want it,” Batman told him. J'onn nodded and carried the man away.

“Bruce,” Superman began, opening his mouth to scold him. All of the Bats turned to Superman and glared so hard that Superman snapped his mouth shut. He knew that if he so much as dared to even appear to discourage them from doing all they could to find their missing member that they would jump him for it.

“I'll keep searching,” Superman stated, changing gears. The slow, but knowing nods of the Bat family made him want to shiver as  goose-flesh erupted on his skin. 'Terrifying,' he thought to himself. 'There are four of them now.'  He slunk away, trying not to hurry.

Bruce's lips twitched in amusement to see the Kryptonian scamper away like a frightened child.  _ Child. _ His amusement faded, giving way to angry anxiety.

“We're going to find him, Dick,” Tim swore. “We're going to get Baby Bat back.” His eyes were afire as he promised Dick that. Jason mentally echoed Red's sentiments.

Dick exchanged a look with Jason. Jason knew exactly what Dick wanted. Pain. Pain for those that took Damian, for those that were torturing him, experimenting on him this very moment. Jason couldn't bring himself to try and reason with Dick. Honestly? He wanted the same thing.

  


_ -Beep beep beeeeep!- _

“ Shit!” Tim just about jumped out of his skin as his mini-laptop released an alarm. Dick, Jason, and Bruce looked with him with curious eyes, almost laughing.

“Geez, kid, didn't know you scared so easily,” Jason teased a little.

Tim rolled his eyes as he began to hit keys at an incredible speed on his laptop. “Not a kid, Little Red,” he quipped back.

Jason scowled at Tim's use of one of his new nicknames. He damned the day he choose to use 'Red Hood' as his identity.

“Son of a bitch...” Tim's eyes widened and a look of wonder filled his features. His lips quirked in a fond smile.

“What is it?” Dick asked, curiously.

Tim looked up at his family, pride evident on his face. “It's Baby Bat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! A second update! You weren't expecting that now were you?  
> :) (I wasn't either, but I got on a roll.)
> 
> I was amazed to see how much the hits on this work went up between the posting of the previous chapter and now. Guess we all want to know what happens to Damian, huh?
> 
> Anyways. Let me know how you liked it and if you have an thoughts about how it's going/what's going to happen next. Thanks for reading~!


	13. Time to Fly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Kreed reveals some troubling information about what's to come for Damian, he decides its time to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Some graphic scenes that are a bit gory/gruesome.

Damian smiled as he held the small comm in the palm of his hand, the light blinking softly in the darkness. It had taken him almost three weeks, but he'd gotten it. He'd finally gotten something sharp enough to slice into his skin and pull the comm out of his body.

By this time, his body was healing near instantaneously like he'd only seen Flash do. He'd been afraid when he realized what was happening, but now? He couldn't help but feel like Cadmus made a major error when they gave him super-healing abilities. Now, no one would be able to tell that he'd cut his arm open to rip out a secret comm he'd hidden there.

'Given the density of the walls and the likelihood that this facility is underground,' he factored that in as he calculated the estimated time of arrival for Batman and the others to arrive, 'I'd say it will take them about.. half an hour.'

Which was 20 minutes more than he probably had.

  


One hour ago.

Kreed smiled sadistically as he ran a blade down Damian's bare chest. Jagged edges cutting into him as red ran down his chest before it healed within a minute. Damian hadn't even breathed while the psycho cut into him.

“Pretty Bird,” Kreed crooned, “soon you'll forget everything about your life before and you'll proudly stand at my side.”

The bloodied blade caressed his cheek gently enough that it made his stomach churn with disgust. Kreed chuckled as he saw the disgusted look on Damian's face and held Damian's chin with his fingers.

“Now, now, Bird. We're going to get along you and I. Once they inject Q into your system, you'll forget everything and everyone you care for and with your healing abilities and your.. more expansive ways to kill, we'll take down the Bat and his stooges.”

Damian's eyes narrowed and he glared daggers at Kreed, a defiant smirk on his face. “As if. I can't imagine anyone giving up even the worst memories to play partner to  _ you.” _

A dark look passed over Kreed's face before it was replaced with a sickly sweet smile. He leaned forward reaching out. Damian felt his throat seize as Kreed pulled the harness around his neck tighter. “Now, now, Pretty Bird,” he softly crooned as he let the knife glide over Damian's cheek again with a gentle motion. “You don't want to test your abilities again now do you?”

Gritting his teeth, Damian barely stopped himself from saying 'no'. The last time he'd egged Kreed on, it had gone over the line. Not even the Cadmus researchers and guards had been able to stop Kreed from cutting a horizontal line along Damian's stomach with one quick, deep slash. He'd barely survived even with his advanced healing.

It still made him nauseous to think that he'd seen his own guts, literally, spilling out in front of him.

Chapped lips brushed his forehead making Damian freeze and shocking him out of his flashback. He shuddered internally as he watched Kreed lick his lips like a hungry wolf. It wasn't the feral kind of pedophilic sickness that Damian had seen during his time as Robin. No, it was the kind he'd seen with Joker. The possessing kind. The kind of look that meant that he would rip apart anyone in his way to get what he wanted.

Damian bit his lip to keep himself from outwardly reacting. If Kreed did have the same tendencies as the Joker, even a few of them, he realized that Batman's observations, his notes, his information, was sorely lacking and that.. That was terrifying.

He held still as Kreed dragged the blade over his other cheek, smiling with glee as blood ran down Damian's cheek, the faint burn of the wound being opened and then healed already second place to him.

“Now,” Kreed leaned in closer, his lips by Damian's ear, “soon you'll feel it. It's a rush. The sting of the needle. The burn of Q eating up all of your memories. Soon,” he repeated, “Crow will be dead and you'll be mine.”

Damian struggled against his bonds, wanting to lash out, to strike at the viper. Kreed laughed at Damian's fruitless struggles, patting his healed, but blood stained cheeks. “Take some time to remember before it's all gone, Pretty Bird.”

Damian was thrown back into his cage gracelessly, landing hard on his side. He winced as he heard a bone in his hand crack as he tried to catch himself. He took a breath, waiting for a few minutes for it to heal before he clenched and unclenched his hand. Satisfied that it was healed, his hand slipped into his loose clothing.

'Got it,' Damian grinned to himself as he pulled a sliver of a broken blade from a hidden pocket he'd constructed in his clothing.  He wasn't sure what Q was specifically, but he wasn't going to wait around and see.

His hands roamed his right arm before he found a small bump. Damian held up the sliver and wordlessly, without hesitation, slashed into the area. He dropped the sliver and dug his fingers into his own flesh before he found the comm and pulled it out, lucky as the wound healed a few seconds afterwards.

'Find me,' he silently prayed as he hit a small button on the comm. 'If not for me.. then to take down Cadmus.'

  


Damian took a second look at the light, hope warming his insides in ways that he wasn't sure was real. He shook his head and slid the comm into the little pocket of his clothes before picking the danger sliver up. Even if the League was coming, he wasn't about to sit around and do nothing. Damian Wayne, son of Batman, did not idle when it was time for business.

He picked the sliver of the blade back up and wiped his blood clean before putting a hand under his cot and pulled out a rubber band and a bolt he'd managed to snag. He turned his back towards the camera, as he'd done to take out the comm. He angled the rubber band just right and… The bolt his the camera, breaking the lens.

'Now, to wait,' he thought as he tensed his muscles, readying himself to attack the poor imbecile who came to check on the situation. 'Crow is getting out of here.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I got it done earlier than expected. Hopefully that's okay?
> 
> Let me know what you think. I hope you enjoyed it.


	14. Flawed Strength

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite using everything in their power to race there, the Bat family is on edge.
> 
> Meanwhile, Damian's finding it difficult to control the..other aspects of his change at Cadmus' hands.

Dick was having a hard time restraining himself from jumping out of the jet to get there faster. 'You can't help Damian if you dead,' he kept telling himself. Of course he had to repeated it a few times. The way Tim and Jason kept twitching let him know they were as anxious as he was.

He could hear Bruce growling orders into the comm system as he tried to get the League and its allies in place. Everyone was being surprisingly complacent. Perhaps it was the fact that they knew how much this meant to them or perhaps it was the fact that a child, their child, had been with Cadmus for one month too long.

Jason's leg bounced up and down in the large Bat marked jet. He prayed for them to get there faster, wanted to yell and scream for Batman to have some kind of plan to speed them up, some kind of technology to fall back on for a time like this, but he sunk his teeth on the inside of his mouth until he tasted copper. There was only so much they could do. And he hated it.

Tim was focused on his laptop, eyes trained on the blip. He'd managed to hack in and get the blueprints for the facility before he'd been kicked out. Right now, he could see the blip move through the facility. 'Commandeering that satellite was a good decision,' he thought, eyes following the motions – eyes following  _ Damian. _

“He's moving,” Tim told them as he pictured so many different reasons as to why the comm was moving and he only hoped that it wasn't anything like he was imagining. Eyes flickered his way, but no one said anything as the shudder of the over-exhausted engines passed through them.

Bruce ground his teeth as his hands tightened on the wheel. He wanted nothing more than to be able to run as fast as Flash at that moment. His boy – the one whom he'd been so unsteady around at first – needed him and after thinking about everything Damian had been through, with them and with the League of Assassins, he was afraid to fail him again.

  


Pain lanced through his head as sounds burst around him. Damian swore to himself that he'd make it, somehow. His condition was more of a problem than he'd originally hoped it would be.

In the process of becoming one who healed at Flash comparative speeds, he'd also been given a 'Hyper State', so the researchers' had called it. It was a deadly state to anyone who came within reach when he lashed out, but without self control, it was also extremely painful.

Every since was increased to an inhuman level. “Comparable to Superman,” he'd been told. He doubted his strength was that great, but his hearing? His sight? Taste? Smell? It was painfully acute and when he slipped up, it was just plain agony.

He'd learned to use tricks that his grandfather had taught him, a sort of meditative state, in order to control his Hyper State, but there were times when his control slipped up. It often happened after he received and healed from a near fatal injury, so he tried extremely hard not to get injured that much, although Cadmus hadn't been so kind as to lay off.

Damian swore vibrantly in Korean and French as he watched the blood clot and the muscle and skin begin to knit back together after he'd been struck in the side, cutting himself wide open. Voices yelling, the smell of chemicals and sterile lab environments, the feel of feet pounding on the floor was starting to make him sick with pain.

Back to the wall, he glared through the pain at Kreed. Smiling like a lunatic, fondly, Kreed cooed, “Come here, Pretty Bird. It'll be okay. We just need to give you some Q and you'll be all mine.” As if Damian wanted to go to someone as obviously ill in the head as he was.

He swallowed back a wave of nausea as the sounds of explosions pounded his nervous system. He bit into his lip, both finding relief and mind-numbing destruction as he felt the sensation and tasted the metallic flavor of his own blood.

“I will  _ never _ be yours, Kreed,” Damian hissed furiously. His arm gestured angrily to the injured, unconscious bodies of Cadmus agents on the floor in front of him. Some of them had several broken bones and, he hates to admit it, but he might've broken a spine or two when he'd lost control of his abilities.

“If you dare come near me, you'll end up just like they did,” he threatens. Kreed doesn't bat an eye at the threat, instead his smile widens, teeth shining with a dark glimmer.

“Now, now, Pretty Bird,” Kreed grins, “you can't possibly think I'm the same as those,” he looks at the agents on the floor with disgust, “pathetic lifeforms, can you?”

He wants to tell Kreed that he thinks he's even lower than they are, but Kreed's arm twitches and he can see it all slow down. Damian runs forward, meeting the forearm of the hand holding the gun with his own and throwing out a kick that Kreed dodges. Internally, he growls at the miss, but keeps himself together enough to not be too hurt by the boot that catches him in his ribs.

Kreed doesn't hold back as he fights with Damian, managing to grab the boy's loose clothing and breaking his shoulder when he flinches from sensatory overload.

Damian hisses with displeasure, desperately fighting as Kreed pulls him close, some kind of needle coming from his pocket. “Don't touch me,” Damian growls, regretless as he snaps Kreed's wrist.

Despite the hope that a broken wrist would make Kreed release him, he finds himself thrown against the wall with ungodly strength, enough to shatter his shoulder further. Crying out, he sags against the wall, holding his arm and feeling the bones grate together.

Everything's too much. The pain, the noise, the sensations, the sight.. everything is overwhelming him and he just wants to crawl up on his bed back at the Manor with Alfred and Titus by his side again. He wants to blot out the entire world.

“Now then, Pretty Bird,” overly rough, strong hands grab his chin and he looks up, vision blurry then sharp then blur then sharp, at Kreed. “This won't hurt much.” Although Kreed's face says  _ it will, it will, it will. _

The needle comes closer to his skin, he sees it coming, but he's frozen from all the stimulation and he can only watch.

  


“ _Let him go or die, Kreed.”_ A sharp, furiously angry voice bites into the hazy mess of Damian's awareness and his breath catches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello~ Hope everyone had a great weekend (and Monday and Tuesday). I'm finally back to writing again. ~Yay!~ I'm actually supposed to be working more on the next work in the Speedster Family series, but fishfingersandjellybabies has been making a lot of new updates/posts and I got trapped in Bat Fam/Damian. This is the result. Starting to get a good idea as to how this is going to end. There's not much left to do except get Damian from Cadmus and reunite the beloved family.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to chat/follow me on tumblr if you like - tabihe  
> Have a good rest of the week.


	15. Back in Our Arms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Help has finally arrived, but will it be enough?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for some self-inflicted injuries (that have a purpose)

Dick's not sure how anyone manages to keep themselves from lashing out and snapping the bastard's neck right then and there. Jason looks beyond tempted, but his eyes are trained on the way Kreed's hand has Damian's chin. The kid looks so much more broken and thin than he had before. He looks like he's in the worst agony of his life, but at the same time he looks so lost he could be dead.

Tim's hand rests on his belt, ready to destroy the son of a bitch who's hands are currently on his little brother. He'd been so blind the truth behind Damian's actions before, he wasn't going to let him down again. This time, he'd protect him and be there for him. He swore it.

Batman looks like the very epitome of righteous fury as he glares at Kreed. Whether he's a fool or not, it can't be decided, but Kreed gives the Bat family a grin, even as he hears the fighting in the background, and swipes his thumb over the boy's cheek.

“Well, well, well,” Kreed smiles as he takes the motionless boy and picks him up, leaning him into his side. It amuses him to see the way the Bat clan growls at that. “If it isn't the Bat of Gotham City and his little sidekicks. How did you find this place?”

Damian chokes on his laughter, eyes flying towards him as he smirks up at Kreed. “You forgot to check everywhere, you pathetic piece of nothing,” Damian snarks, fearlessly as the haze of his overload keeps the panic down and just sends him pulses of pain.

Eyes narrowing with anger, Kreed lets his fingers dig into the healing shoulder and Damian cries out as his fingers press into the broken bones and marred tissues.  _ “You did this?” _ Kreed scathingly accuses and Damian's sure it's not the best move, but he chuckles, the taste of blood on his tongue. “You lose,” he hisses up at his capture r .

Kreed glares at him before smiling darkly. “Perhaps not.” The needle plunges into Damian's arm.

Instantly, everyone that had tensely stood, frozen, was set into motion. Damian was ripped from Kreed's grasp and he vaguely registered that Red Hood and Batman were fighting the maniac.

“Dami?” Damian looked up at Nightwing, eyes wide and panicked. “Dami, are you okay?” He blinked, before he realized what had just happened.

Damian's arm shot out and stole the birdarang from Red Robin's hands before he looked at his arm. Without hesitation, he sliced into his arm, ignoring the pain. 'Get it out,' he commanded himself, desperately.  _ 'Get it out!' _

Red Robin's hands shot out to stop him, but Damian managed to control his abilities enough to shove him away and continued cut after cut. He needed to bleed it out.  _ Now. _ That was the only thing on his mind, though he could feel Nightwing's hands and hear his frightened voice.

Red beams of light stabbed into his eyes, tears running down his cheeks like shards of glass. The birdarang felt so  _ cold _ in his hand as he continued to cut himself open each time he healed.

“Baby Bat!”

A hand reached out and grabbed the birdarang from him, but he felt that it was good enough. It had to be. He forced himself to look up despite the pain. Voices,

sounds of fighting, of explosions roared in his ears with a loud buzz. Damian barely recognized his own voice.  _ “I don't want to forget.” _

And then every single little sensation trampled over him, blood sticky and burning fire into his skin and he blacked out, falling.

  


Tim lunges out, pulling Damian into his arms, horrified at the way blood coated his body. Dick's hands shook as he grabbed a clothe and began to dab at the blood. They were both sickened by what they'd seen and murderous over what had been done to their Baby Bat.

Jason's eyes catch the lull between Batman and Kreed and he doesn't hesitate to fire a bullet straight into the bastard's shoulder. He's not sure what's going on when Kreed pauses and looks at it and just seems to shrug it off as he throws a miniature _ bomb _ at him. Jason dodges, wincing at the sound of the wall blowing up behind him.

'This Kreed guy is a fucking nutcase,' is all he has time to think about before he sees Batman thrown into a wall with a loud crack. Jason looks back at Damian and how small and pale and absolutely  _ caked in blood _ – he's breaking Kreed's jaw before he knows it.

“Damian, Damian!” Everyone can hear Dick mutter frantically under the sounds of fighting. Tim's clutching Damian close to him as Dick looks over the injuries and even Batman can tell that the way they're sounding so panicked and shocked tells him that something's not right.

Batman can't help but feel relieved when Superman barges in and delivers a powerful punch to Kreed, throwing him so hard into the wall that he might've broken his spine. He doesn't stop to think about it though, he just runs over to Damian's side with Jason scrambling behind him.

“What's his status?” Bruce asks, voice tight with worry. Dick and Tim exchange looks before they look up at them, faces drawn and ashen. “He's..” Dick starts before he falls silent, looking down at Damian with so much pain that he could be the one hurt.

“It was a success..” Tim continues for him, shaking a little as he brushes a strand of hair from Damian's face. “Cadmus succeeded.” Tim lifts the arm Dick had cleaned of blood, only to reveal that, despite being stained with some red, it was healed.

Jason's eyes narrow and he kneels in front of Damian. “How much..?” Tim watches as Dick holds onto Damian's hand, ignoring the sounds of the other heroes, calling to check in or request help. Finally Tim, replies, “I don't know..”

Superman is silent as Batman lifts Damian from Tim's arms and places a very un-Batman like kiss on the boy's temple, murmuring apologies. They've finally found him, got him back, but.. are they too late?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to admit.. I am so drowning in love for Damian right now. I've even gotten a new idea from reading some of fishfingersandjellybabies & thegalaticpope's works. I so can't afford to write it right now, but I really really want to. Maybe just a little snippet of a scene to add to my Ideas section? We'll see.
> 
> Anyways. I'm thinking only one more chapter left (maybe?). No more torturing Damian, I promise. Next chapter shouldn't take too long (with how much other Damian works I'm reading), I hope.
> 
> (Tumblr: tabihe)


	16. I Am.. Me.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter alert!
> 
> Damian wakes up in a very familiar place only to reunite with those he'd thought he had left behind.

Waking up was a nightmare. Everything was so loud, so scratchy, so bright..  _ -beep, beep, beep- _ Damian squinted as he looked over at the heart monitor.  _ -drip, drip, drip- _ His focus shifted to the IV in his arm as it dripped.

He groaned for a moment before closing his eyes and stilling. It took him a minute to gather himself, to center himself.

Opening his eyes again, he found it easier – to breathe, to see, to hear, to feel. He sighed with relief, turning over and pulling the blankets with him, snuggling into them. 'Such a nice feeling.. it's been a while,' he thought to himself, closing his eyes again.

Damian shot up in bed with shock, eyes wide as he frantically took in everything in the room. He noted the doors, the technology, the windows, and – ..was that space? Damian blinked and pulled the monitor equipment off, slipping out of bed and walking over to the window.

It  _ was _ space _ . _ 'The Watchtower..' Damian reached out, hesitantly before resting his palm on the cold, reinforced glass. A knot of tension, of pain, of everything that he'd been through for the passed month loosened. He breathed out. He was safe.

  


“And I'm telling  _ you _ , we could just slip passed the security and pay Kreed a private visit,” a familiar voice argued as the door opened.

“As if Superman would let us get close,” Dick responded, rolling his eyes at Jason as Tim followed them into the room. “We wouldn't get two feet in before he -” Dick paused, blinking at the empty bed.

“Ow!” Tim grumbled as he ran into Dick, smacking into him. “What was that for?”

Jason reached behind Dick and pulled Tim in front, pointing with the other hand towards the window. Tim took a breath as he noticed Damian standing there.

Dick was lost. He wasn't sure whether to rush over to Damian or to keep his distance. Damian didn't seem to know what to do either, raising his hand and giving a small wave, trying to smile at them. “Um.. hello again?”

Damian looked small, uneasy in front of them. He almost appeared to be uncomfortable. “ I.. didn't expect to see you,” Damian admitted, the 'yet' remained unspoken, but rang in their ears.

Dick puts on a strained smile. “Of course we'd be here, Dami.. We're family.” Damian brows furrow and his lips turn towards with confusion. It tugs at Dick's heart and he walks towards Damian slowly. “Damian..” he bites his lip a little as he looks at his little brother. “When.. when you left.. did you really think we wouldn't miss you?”

Damian looks away, swallowing. He had. He'd thought it was for the best. “I..I thought you'd be happier without me..” he tells them, voice hushed, so much so that they almost didn't hear it.

Jason's fingers curl into a fist and he looks at the ceiling with self-hatred. Tim wasn't doing much different beside him, lips curved in a broken frown. They couldn't help but think that all of this was their fault. They should've known better. How could they forget how Damian was raised? How he'd never gotten to be a kid..

“You were wrong,” Dick murmurs, sadly watching as Damian's gazed snapped towards him with disbelief. “Damian, we.. we love you.” Damian's eyes narrowed at Dick and the others, believing it to be utterly untrue.

“It's true,” Tim said, stepping forward. “I know we fought.. but… It's not like I've ever hated you. And.. I know now that you didn't ever hate me. We just..” A pained look crossed Tim's face, “We just kept getting our wires crossed.”

“To be honest, we all thought you were a total demon brat,” Jason mentions, hating the way Damian flinched at the title he'd been given. “But we were wrong, Baby Bat,” he swears. “Our family.. we're all such idiots when it comes to fluffy stuff like emotions.. It makes us forget how much we all need each other. We forgot  what  you've gone through and how much you needed us.”

“Damian,” Dick kneels in front of Damian, heart clenching at the way the boy leans back into the wall, head knocking on the window lightly. “We're sorry,” he whispers, choking on his guilt and regret. “We're sorry for ever letting you believe that we hate you. We're sorry for not noticing how hard living with us  was . We're sorry that we ever let you feel alone.”

Dick took a breath and continued, “And I hope you can forgive us for all our mistakes. Damian.. can you give us a second chance?”

Damian looked at them, hesitantly as if he were afraid to believe them, to trust them. “But Father..”

“-wants you  back too.” Everyone's gaze turned to the door where Bruce stood, cowl drawn back and eyes pleading. “Damian, please.  We – I missed you,” he admits. “Batman  may have missed Robin, but most of all, Bruce Wayne missed his son.”

Something in Damian starts to crumble and he shudders, arm curling around his middle. “I-I don't know if I can go back to being Robin..”

“That's okay,” Bruce assures Damian.

“I'm..” Damian looks away, ashamed. “I'm not normal anymore. Cadmus.. they changed me. I'm not the Damian I once was,” he admits, voice cracking.

A hand rests on his shoulder and Damian looks over at Dick, who's smiling gently. “It doesn't matter, Dami. You're still you. You're still Damian Wayne, son of Batman and kick butt hero.”

Damian nibbles his lip, nervously. “..Yeah?”

Tim and Jason smile at Damian, nodding. “Yeah, kid.”

“..Can.. can I come home?” Damian asks, afraid to hear 'no'. Dick's arms wrap around Damian gently and pull him into his chest. “Of course, Dami. We're a family, no matter what.”

  


In Grayson's arms, Damian feels.. warm for the first time since he'd left. Thinking that they'd be happier without him, he'd set off to be himself, to help people, to not be a burden, to be  _ himself _ , whoever that turned out to be. It'd only made him feel lonely, disconnected. Sure, he'd helped people as Crow and he felt more like Crow than he'd ever felt like Robin. Crow was his and his alone.

But Damian.. he'd missed them. He hadn't thought he would considering how badly their relations were, but he  _ really _ missed them. He'd had so much time to think about them when he was with Cadmus, had time to think about how he wishes he could be one of them. To be loved. And after all that.. it looked like all the things he'd thought about them were wrong.

Damian wasn't sure he believed them, not fully, but he wanted to so badly. That's why he wrapped his arm around Grayson, burying his face against his unpleasantly hard Kevlar. “Is.. is it really okay?”

“Without question, Baby Bat,” Jason reassured him.

Damian looked up at Jason, wriggling around of Grayson's arms and threw himself onto Jason, wrapping his arms around him. Jason huffed with surprise before he curled his arms around the boy's middle. “I'm glad you're okay, Jason,” Damian clung to him.

Jason's eyes lit up with surprise and he could see the same shock etched on his brothers and father's faces. It was the first time Damian had called anyone by their first name. He grinned widely and hugged his little brother so tight. “You too.”

Tim shuffled, awkwardly and Jason raised an eyebrow before he set Damian back on the floor. “Thanks.. for the rescue and for everything.” Damian stared at Tim for a moment, nodding before Tim muttered, “Oh screw it,” and wrapped his arms around Damian, hugging him close. “I missed you,” he whispered and Damian whispered back, arms around Tim, blushing slightly, “I missed you too, Tim.”

Dick pouted as he saw Tim smile brightly. “Dami..” he whined. Bruce raised an eyebrow at his eldest with an amused look at the way he was whining like a five year old. Damian chuckled a little as Tim released him and looked back at Dick. “Yes, Dick,” he rolled his eyes and held his arms out to him. “I missed you as well.”

Dick practically squealed and rushed Damian, sweeping him off his feet and spinning him around as he clung to him. He was on cloud nine. He had his little brother back and this time he swore he'd never let Damian feel alone again, swore to make sure he knew how much he mattered. And well.. he'd said his name for the first time – that was a bonus.

Bruce cleared his throat, glaring a little at Dick. Dick sheepishly put a red faced Damian back on the floor and stepped away from him. Damian laughed a little and stepped closer to Bruce. “I'm home.. Dad,” he smiled despite his absolutely beet red cheeks. Bruce's face tinted and he smiled with joy at his youngest.

“Welcome home” he said as he knelt down and wrapped his arms around his son. It didn't matter to him whether his son would take up the mantle of Robin again or not, or that he was now technically a meta, the only thing that mattered was that he had his son back. Damian was home.

  


Crow laughed with glee as he raced across the rooftops of Gotham City in the dark. The smell of pollution and the sounds of the city straining his control a little, but he hardly cared. “Wait up, Baby Bat!” Nightwing called from behind him.

Crow turned and watched as Red Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Batman raced to catch up with him. “Gotten slow, have you?” Crow called back to them, smiling. He could hear Red Hood swear about Crow having an advantage, but Crow knew it was all in good sport.

“Hurry up!” he called to them as he spotted a group of men surround a woman in an alley. Without waiting for them, he jumped down, using his abilities to land safely.

Some of the men turned to look at him, scowling. “Who's this lil fuck?” Crow smirked at them, rubbing a kink out of the back of his neck. “I 'd give up, if I were you,” he recommended, watching them look at each other. They laughed, one of the men grabbing the woman. “Yer just some lil brat.”

Crow narrowed his eyes at them, smile turning dark. “Well,” he said,  hearing familiar  sounds coming closer, “Have it your way then.” He chuckled as Batman, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Red Robin landed beside him. The men paled. “Not just 'some lil brat' now, am I?” Crow questioned.

In their shock, the man let go of the woman and she ran off. He growled and pointed at the heroes. “Get them!”

Crow smirked, shaking his head a little. “Fools.” The Bat family sprung into action. Dodging crowbars and fists, Crow grinned. This was his family and he was Crow.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was so shocked when I finished this chapter. I thought, "Have I really just written the ending?" Oh, gosh. I hope you guys enjoyed it (this chapter and all of those before). I believe this series is at its end. It's hard to believe that this went from a one-shot to being two parts and having come this far. I really hope that I was able to satisfy my fellow Damian lovers. I promise it won't be the last Damian centric fic I write. (Actually, I have a follow up for "Life for the Third Time" I need to write still.)
> 
> Thanks for reading, commenting, bookmarking, and giving this work kudos. Have a wonderful weekend!~ Feel free to stick around for more works in the future or check out some of my others. (Tumblr: tabihe)

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if this lives up to expectations, but I will be doing my best at it. I really want to write Damian in a way that I think could suit him.
> 
> Let me know what you think!
> 
> (Additional tags may be made at a later date)


End file.
